Bye, Guys.

While I do enjoy blogging, I've decided to set this aside for a while. I want to be able to do fun stuff without feeling guilty because I didn't take pictures and I'm not going to blog about it. I may be back every so often, we'll see.

TTFN,
Lauren

Thanks, Internet! Now I'm never going to sleep again.

Thanks to this tumblr.

Oh, hi there.

In the great gap of time since we've last chatted, I got an iPod touch. Won it, actually! And I never win anything!

I've been playing with the camera. Meet, overly stylized portraits of myself and my loved ones. Clockwise from top left: the boyfriend, the me, the mother, and the sister.

Just a short post for now.

I've been letting this thing go. I wish I could say I've been busy living my life excitedly, but honestly I've just gotten caught up in school. Every time I think about posting here, I think, "Ach, it's been so long! I have to write something epic so my followers won't be disappointed."

Well, that epic isn't coming. Sorrys.

I've got three weeks left in the semester, and work is definitely piling up! This weekend I've got to read Their Eyes Were Watching God and about a third of The Monk by Matthew Lewis. And study for my Astronomy test next week.

But for now, I'm at home chilling. I watched Tangled earlier with my mom and sister. I almost cried but pulled myself together. Either tomorrow or Saturday I'm heading over to my boyfriend's house to dye Easter eggs with his mom and grandmother and sister. I'm excited about that! I love dyeing Easter eggs! Does anyone else draw faces on them in white crayon, or is it just me?

Anyway, I'm signing off now. Gotta read a buttload of Zora Neale Hurston and then go to sleep.

XO, Lauren

PS. It's good to be back.

This is card number two of my Cheer Up Deck. Not that I'm not a generally cheerful person, but everyone feels blue sometimes. The other card says "camping is IN TENTS" and then has a drawing of a tent. XD

SO BUSY. Sorry about the lack of blogging.

Ack, so much has been going on lately! And since it's been so long since I last posted, I feel like I have to really impress you guys with some awesome blogging, and nothing has been coming to mind.

So here's what I've been up to:

The weekend before last was The Vagina Monologues. The show was amazing! So fulfilling and awesome! I made cocktail meatballs for the after party, and it was the maiden voyage of my new slow cooker! It was wonderful! Dragging that huge thing down to the theater was horrible, though...

Tomorrow's Valentine's Day! Hooray! Since I have class at 7, there's not really time for us to go out to dinner. So I'm making a chicken taco soup. I'll let you know how it goes.

That's all for now, folks! I've got to read Frederick Douglass's autobiography for class tomorrow.

Chunesy Chuesday: Vagina Edition

Have some vag-friendly songs!

Thus Begins The Week of the Vagina!

Woo! Hoo! The show is this weekend! The Vagina Monologues is going to rock everyone's socks off!

For those familiar with the show, my monologues is called Because He Liked to Look at It, or as we affectionately call it, Bob.

Best part about it? I get to yell Pussys Unite! and fist pump. What more could I possibly want from life? Nothing. There is nothing more I want from life. Also I get to moan onstage. I have the almost moan, which is sad and pitiful.

But you said the show was on the weekend, Lauren. Why is it The Week of the Vagina?

Becaaaaaause, I have practice all week starting today, duh!

This is the flyer I made for the show: (except oops, there's no performance on the 3rd...)

In other news: it's been hella snowy here. Today, the school opened at 10 and my only class is at 9:40, so no class for me today! Awesome!

Also, I have my first school internship this semester. It's at a middle school in the area and I am SO FREAKIN EXCITED!!!! I was supposed to start today, but public schools are closed, so I'll start Thursday. The class I'm working with is starting Romeo and Juliet next week! How fun!

I feel like my life is one giant exclamation point!

Is everyone else as excited to be alive as I am?

Pea Ess. There are still two spots in my features week. Go here and comment if you're interested.

Features Week!

Hey guys!

One of my resolutions this year was to be a better blogger. I want to take more pictures, post more, and do more interesting stuff on my blog. I'm planning a giveaway later on in the spring, and I have some more tricks up my sleeve.

I've decided to have a guest post/feature week thingy! I'll write up an interview of sorts and for a whole week in February, I'll have a post a day featuring some awesome blogs.

Which blogs? That's totally up to you! The first five commenters will be featured, no ifs, ands or buts! (heh heh, I said butts.)

I'm really hoping this works out and I think it'll be a fun experience for everyone involved. Comment away!

Oscar Noms and other Ramblings

Of the ten movies nominated for best picture, I've seen:
Black Swan, Inception, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit.

I haven't seen:
The Fighter, The Kids are All Right, The King's Speech, 127 Hours, Winter's Bone.

Matt saw The Fighter and The Kids are All Right and said they were excellent. I sooooooo completely want to see The King's Speech! It looks incredible!

Luckily, a theater near us has "Oscar Days" where you pay like $30 and there's a marathon of the nominated movies. I think Matt and I are going to do it. Except, since there's ten movies this year, there are two oscar days with five movies on each day, and $60 is kind of expensive. Even if we do get to see ten movies.

In other news, I'm halfway through my second day of classes. I already have a ton of work!

I'm off to eat lunch and read some literary criticism about theories of the novel. boooooring.

Oh, and something else interesting: One of the guys in Matt's apartment moved out last semester, so they have someone new this year and he's this guy from Brussels named Loic. He's really nice! I'm excited to get to know him!

Okay. Last thing. Last night I watched this documentary called Jesus Camp that was amazing. It's about this summer camp for evangelical Christians, and it was so fascinating, and somewhat appalling how these kids are brainwashed into "soldiers in God's army." They literally speak in tongues. I didn't know people actually did that.

All right, enough rambling. I'm going to go make a sandwich and eat some coffee yogurt. And then I have more class.

ttfn

Sailing Alone Around the Room

That's the title of a book of poems by one of my favorite poets, Billy Collens. You should check it out.

I just got back to my room at school, and instead of unpacking I'm browsing the internets. I snapped a couple pictures of my room as it is right now to share with you. Once I get everything all put away you can see my room as it should be!

My desk!

The view from the doorway.

Pretty much my half of the room. Towards the bottom of the picture you can see my MANY unpacked bags!

The artses on my wallses. I painted the splatter paintings myself, the Hello Kitty poster came with some valentines, and the collage-ish thing to the right is all taken out of an art magazine I found.

This is Wolfie. He's my bestest friend. :)

I like movies that are a bit out there.

I love watching movies. This is no secret. Some of my favorite movies, though, I make my friends watch with me and they're all like Lauren. What is wrong with you?

Machete 
 I freaking love this movie! Danny Trejo is a BAMF who goes around chopping peoples heads off with, you guessed it, a machete. In fact, his nickname is Machete!

Best line of the movie:
(They're all so incredibly quotable, it's hard to pick just one!)
Machete Don't Text

The Chumscrubber
I watched this one at a friend's house. She had checked it out from the library, and by the time the movie was over, everyone was sick of it but me.

By far the best part of this movie is the adults. There's the main plot with some teenagers, but what really kills me is the supreme neurosis of their parents. Ralph Fiennes thinks he's a dolphin, for example.
Best In Show
I watched this movie yesterday while I was eating lunch. It's an incredibly hilarious mockumentary about a dog show. The dog owners are all insane. Absolutely insane.

Wristcutters: A Love Story
A friend of mine recommened this movie to me by saying, "It's one of those crappy movies you like." And it's true. It's set in the afterlife at a way station for those who have committed suicide. Bonus: The music is all by Gogol Bordello!

Eagle vs Shark
This is like the New Zealand version of Napoleon Dynamite, except it's actually good. These two people are cripplingly nerdy. Jarrod (the dude) hosts a party where everyone is supposed to come dressed as their favorite animal. When Lily comes as a shark, he tells her "I almost came as a shark actually. But then I realized eagles are slightly better." The whole movie is full of little tiny things that made me giggle. Plus, I'm a huge fan of Flight of the Conchords!

American Splendor
This movie was sooooo good! It's about this guy, Harvey Pekar, who wrote a series of comic books called American Splendor. What's really great about this movie is that it plays with form a lot. The credits look like a comic book, kind of, with characters breaking out of the panels to talk to you. And Harvey Pekar is actually in the movie. He's kind of a narrator, but he interacts with you sometimes. It's just so cool!

So there you are: some of my favorite movies. They're all terrific for different reasons, and I highly recommend you watch every single one of them.

Love,
Lauren

I've got the winter blues.

I feel unmotivated, uninspired, uninterested. All I do is sit around on the internet, or sit around watching movies, or sit around reading. I haven't even been reading much.

I have to have surgery. I found this out recently. I'm having an excisional biopsy: I have a "benign breast mass" that needs to be removed. Dunno what it is, just that it's not cancer. Which is great! But I've been kind of up and down with moods lately. Plus my boyfriend is at the beach for the weekend, so I'm feeling especially crappy.

I've just been trying to keep busy. Yesterday I baked cookies, and today I watched Best in Show (hilarious movie!) and the Best of Jimmy Fallon on SNL. And I read the BUST magazine I got in the mail the other day.

So I guess, please be patient with me if my blogging is lackluster.

Super-Awesome Deal! $20 Amazon Gift Card for $10

I don't know if you've heard of this website, livingsocial, but they have great deals every day on stuff! Usually it's something like a restaurant or something where I don't think the deal is really worth going there, but today you can buy a $20 Amazon Gift Card for only $10. How cool is that?

Just sharing. Here's the link to buy it. (Plus, it's my referral link, and if three people buy one using my link, I get another gift card, free!)

I mean, who doesn't shop at amazon?

my day thus far in a series of haiku

crap, my clock is slow
thought i still had time to snooze
oops, gotta get up

service engine soon
guess i should get that checked out
light's been on for months

i like my spaghetti-
o's like i like my women
boiling lava hot

i like this movie:
eight and a half. italian.
but i can't focus

time for a snack?
chips and salsa, my favorite
yum yum yum yum yum

Is it Tuesday already? Chunesy Chunes.

Good luck getting this song out of your head. I recently saw a play where the characters all sang this song, and it's been stuck in my head for the past week.

The Vagina Monologues

I finally realized the kind of book I'm in the mood for right now. I want something comfortable, familiar and beloved. With school starting back up in a week, I don't want to be reading something that's as literature-y as the books I have to read for my lit classes.

So last night as I was going to bed I settled in to read some monologues. It's perfect because I know some of them by heart, but others I've never seen before. That's because I've so far only come in contact with the Monologues as a theatrical entity. Turns out, not all of what's in the book is in the play.

The Vagina Monologues are near and dear to my heart. This is my second year being involved in the production at my school. Last year I produced the show, and this year I'm acting in it. And next year I have the honor of directing it along with one of my best friends.

The Vagina Monologues is not a man-hating show. A lot of people believe this. And it's true that Eve Ensler kind of (or at least seems to) hates men. I don't know, in her writing it just seems like she belittles men. She's totally against the "patriarchal culture," but to me it kind of seems like she takes it too far. But maybe that's just me.

Anyway, where I'm going with all this is that being in The Vagina Monologues is one of the best things I've ever done for myself. It makes me feel powerful. I've become very close to a lot of wonderful women who are also in the show. At the risk of sounding too out there, I feel at one with all women all over the world. And I get to moan on stage. Come on, who doesn't want that? (Okay, I realize a lot of people don't want that...)

So please, if you ever get a chance, go see the show. Or even better, be in it. It's really easy, all you have to do is read from a script and you don't even have to memorize your lines! There are sad monologues and happy monologues and everything in between.

I leave you with two fun pictures. The first is me with my former roommate and great friend, Cathy. True story: she was eight months pregnant at last year's show. She actually missed the last performance because of a labor scare! And the second is the super-awesome vagina cake we ate at the cast party!

I can't decide what book to read.

I finished Anna Karenina a couple days ago, and it was really, really good! Then I started this book by Italo Calvino called Numbers in the Dark, and I'm not exactly loving it. I just can't seem to stay interested and I feel like I'm making myself read it.

So, back to the shelves it goes!

My options for books are:

• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Black Boy by Richard Wright
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• Mad, Bad and Sad by Lisa Appignanesi (It's about how women's creativity often leads to mental illness... I think.)

Or I could be responsible and start reading Moll Flanders. It's the first of the nine novels I have to read for British Novel next semester.

What do you guys think?

A Project 365 Blog: My Mom's

She told me not to blog about it yet because "It's not a finished project! I need a banner!" but I don't care. She can go ahead and be mad at me.

If you're looking for a new blog to follow, check out A Strong Cup of Tea, my mom's project 365 blog. She's new to this whole blogging thing, so cut her some slack. I had to force her to make one in the first place! :)

And if you're not already persuaded to go check it out, there are embarrassing pictures of me!

Pea Ess. I made a tumblr today. (Actually, I made two, but one of them is for a top-secret project!) If you have a tumblr, leave a comment so I can follow you!

Pea Ess Ess. I find this whole "reblogging" thing weird. I'm still getting used to it.

Today was a sad, sad day.

The Ravens lost. :'(

Not only did they lose, but they lost to the Steelers (devil team), and they crapped themselves in the second half.

Now understand me: I am not a football fan. But when you're watching the big rivalry game, and a playoff game no less, it's impossible not to get into it. I spent the day with my boyfriend's family, watching the game and then eating KFC and wallowing in despair.

For any Ravens fans who need cheering up, here are some pictures of my cat. If you're a Steeler's fan, you can leave. Go be awful somewhere else.

Sprawled on the arm of the chair like that is his favorite place to lay. I will never understand.